How to Become a Successful Travel Agent from Home
If you’ve ever wondered how to
become a travel agent from home, chances are you have a passion for travel and
enjoy helping people experience the vacation of a lifetime. And while travelers
have increasingly relied on the Internet to research and book their own travel,
there has been a resurgence of people who desire a personal touch that can save
both time and money. Consider the following statistics from Dream Vacations:
- The average time it
takes to book a vacation is five hours, not including research.
- On average, travel
agents save clients $452.
- Baby Boomers love to
travel–and, in the U.S., more than 10,000 people retire every day.
- 67 new cruise ships will
debut between 2019 and 2025.
In today’s economy, becoming a home-based travel
agent requires you to start your own business, join a host agency, or invest in
a franchise. There are pluses and minuses to each of these.
- If you do choose to run
your own independent travel agency business, you will be responsible for
developing your own website, marketing and advertising, travel booking
systems, and business insurance costs—to name a few. You will also be
responsible for generating all of your own leads and managing all of the
business aspects of your business.
- Franchising provides yet
another pathway to becoming a successful travel agent from home. Although
joining a franchise does require an initial investment that includes a
franchise fee, as well as other up-front costs, it also provides you with
brand recognition, built-in lead generation programs, and proven systems
that process both travel bookings and payments. But who you are anchored
to can either float your home-based business or sink it. It’s important to
talk to agents from travel franchises you might be interested in joining
to better learn how commissions are paid out, how much support you receive
from the corporate office, and what types of perks you will be able to
offer your customers as a result of being part of a larger franchise.
